WABASH – The Manchester Squires and Frankton Eagles played a back-and-forth baseball game where the winner was going to create one last break for itself to advance to the Class 2A Wabash Regional championship game. The Eagles were that team. Frankton sophomore Brock Threet got a fly ball up in a strong breeze, clearing the fence in the left field corner for a leadoff home run in the top of the ninth inning. The Eagles then used four singles and a squeeze bunt to score three more times and wrap up an 11-7, extra-inning win at Chris Rood Field Monday afternoon. Early in the game, the Squires struggled to record a third out. Frankton scored five runs in three of the first four innings, all coming with two outs. Manchester tied the game 4-4 in its half of the third inning. Kane Gable opened the inning by drawing a walk and stealing second, then Rylie Rickert rifled a one-out single to left to drive in Gable. Hayes Sturtsman walked, and Zach Hill reached on catcher’s interference to load the bases and knock out Frankton starting pitcher Connor Love. Squire sophomore Trey McNall greeted reliever Jake Eads with a suicide squeeze bunt, scoring Rickert and leaving the bases loaded. Junior David McAtee shot a two-out single up the middle to tie the game. Manchester then took a 7-5 lead with a three-run fourth. Senior Janzin Cripe and McNall drew bases-loaded walks, and McAtee’s second single to center in as many innings drove in the final Squire run. Neither team backed off, with plenty of opportunities to score. There were no 1-2-3 innings in the game for either side. “You have to give them credit, too. They fought, they scratched, they battled ... I don’t know. It’s just one of those things where that’s they way the ball bounces, rolls or whatever in the game of baseball,” said Manchester coach Jack Rupley. Sturtsman, the winning pitcher in two of the three sectional games and with a no-hitter to his credit earlier this season, battled through 8-1/3 innings before finally succumbing to fatigue. “He’s our horse; we were going to let him go as long as he could go, and it looked like he just ran out of gas,” Rupley said. “I was hoping to get through it, but I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.” Manchester entered the sectional as the only team with fewer than 16 wins, and gave a 20-win Frankton team a fight. “I’m pretty proud of the kids. We struggled a little bit throughout the season, but they fought, scratched, clawed and won a sectional championship. Nobody expected them to do that,” Rupley said. “It shows their intestinal fortitude a little bit, and maybe their character a little bit, simply because they’re going to fight. And that’s all we can ask of the kids; to go out and do the best you can and let things happen from there.” The coach added that, with work, the underclassmen could pickup where the seniors left off. “I thanked the senior kids, all six of them. They’ve been through some tough times, and for them to go out with a sectional championship is pretty special; it was the first time it’s been done since 2005,” Rupley said. “I told the younger kids ‘you guys have seen what it takes. It takes hard work, and some people aren’t willing to do that. But if you guys will stick with this, I think we’ll be OK,’ because we’ve had some pretty good freshman and sophomore kids. Hopefully things will continue to get better.” Notes: Frankton dropped the regional championship game to top-ranked and once beaten Lafayette Central Catholic 10-0 in six innings. After having its game with Alexandria suspended with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh on Saturday, LCC needed four pitches to finish its 9-7 semifinal win over the Tigers. LCC entered the seventh inning Saturday down 7-6 in a steady rain. The Knights scored three runs on walks to take the lead. In the bottom of the inning, the field became unplayable as Alexandria loaded the bases on two walks and an error. Heavier rain and standing water forced umpires to call for a delay, and the game didn’t resume until Monday afternoon. FRANKTON 11, MANCHESTER 7 (9 inn.) F 103 102 004 – 11 16 4 M 004 300 000 – 7 9 4 Frankton – Connor Love (2.1 IP, 2H, 4R, 3ER, 3BB, 1K), Jake Eads (1 IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 2K), Evan Doan (2.2IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 2K), Landon Weins (W, 3IP, 2H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 0K) Manchester – Hayes Sturtsman (L, 8.1 IP, 16H, 11R, 10 ER, 4BB, 5K), Zach Hill (0.2IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K) 2B – Will Harris (F), Love (F), Jake Richwine (F), Travis McGuire (F), Doan (F) HR – Brock Threet (F) Records – Frankton 20-6, Manchester 10-16
